Renewed tension in the holy city.
Fifteen Palestinians were arrested on the night of Thursday 6 to Friday 7 May, following clashes between Israeli security forces and protesters against the eviction of Palestinian families in Jerusalem, police said.
Protesters threw stones, assaulted civilians and law enforcement officials and set a car on fire, police said in a statement.
The clashes erupted Thursday evening in a neighborhood in East Jerusalem at the heart of a heated battle in court over the fate of Palestinian families threatened with eviction in favor of Israeli settlers.
In #Jerusalem, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, several Palestinian families are threatened with eviction in favor of Israeli settlers.
Israeli justice must rule in the coming days.
Report from our correspondent @gwendebono ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/tQxPkKULmx
- FRANCE 24 French (@ France24_fr) May 6, 2021
Land ownership of the land in question
The tenor of the Israeli far right, Itamar Ben Gvir, deputy of the religious Zionism formation, had visited the district of Sheikh Jarrah, at the heart of the conflict, to support the Jewish inhabitants of the district, a few hours after the report to Monday by the Supreme Court of a hearing in the case of families threatened with eviction.
Palestinians threw projectiles at a tent set up in front of a house believed to be Itamar Ben Gvir's new parliamentary office.
Tensions revolve around the issue of land ownership of land on which several houses are built where four Palestinian families live.
The Jerusalem District Court earlier this year ruled in favor of Jewish families claiming property rights in this neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a Palestinian area occupied and annexed by Israel.
Anger
According to Israeli law, if Jews can prove that their family lived in East Jerusalem before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, they can ask for their "right to property" to be returned to them.
However, there is no such law for Palestinians who lost their property during the war.
The court's ruling had angered Palestinians who challenge it and since then protests have often led to clashes with law enforcement.
The police have also announced that they are ready to provide security in the city on the last Friday of Ramadan.
Tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers are expected on the Mosques Esplanade in Jerusalem's Old City.
With AFP
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